Becoming the Legendary
by Thorn In Your Side
Summary: She was dead...Tsunade was dead...Jiraiya thought he might as well give up too, but Orochimaru just wouldn't let him die, would he? Then..."KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU: SLUG!" Rated for language.


Becoming the Legendary

**Becoming the Legendary **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, it belong to Masashi Kishimoto, un! (Deidara kicks butt!!)**

**Summary: She was dead…Tsunade was dead…Jiraiya thought he might as well give up too, but Orochimaru just wouldn't let him die, would he? Then, suddenly… "KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU: SLUG!"**

**x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x**

Blood. It was blood. It was her blood, it was on him, it was fucking BLOOD. Scarlet ribbons of the liquid splattered through the foggy air, and he dimly heard the roar of the oni, felt the earth shudder as it sniffed him out, but he couldn't move. What was the point?

She was dead. Tsunade was dead.

The oni had taken her and struck her against the fortress wall, and she'd been like a broken doll in his brutish hands, limp and…and…

Lifeless.

"Jiraiya!" Orochimaru screamed, "Get up! Get up! Fight!"

The oni was above him. He could feel its shadow, even though he couldn't see anything. Her blood was in his eyes.

There was a thunderous crash, ad he flew sideways as the monster's fist rammed into the earth, just feet away from him. He lay on the grassless ground, dust mixing with her blood, congealing it.

Tsunade was dead.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu: Anaconda!!"

He heard a hiss of fury as something, something much bigger than anything Oro had ever summoned was dragged into existence. He heard his teammate's voice again, laced with anger.

"Jiraiya!! Summon! Summon something! Get _**up**_!"

He didn't move, except to look up at the fist of the oni as it swooped through the air, seeking him out. He closed his eyes. He wanted to die. She was dead. He'd go down with her.

Orochimaru cursed loudly enough for him to hear. The snake lunged, and Jiraiya felt his body being snatched off the ground.

Why wasn't he dead? He opened his eyes. Orochimaru backhanded him across the face, hard.

"I can't fight this alone! Snap out of it!"

"Tsunade…she…"

"I know," Orochimaru snapped, his eyes hidden behind a curtain of hair, "Get up. I won't let you just croak on me like this. You'll find the will to live if I have to break every bone in your body to do it!"

Jiraiya closed his eyes again, just for a moment. Tsunade stood before him, a young girl, for the first time as they'd ran to the Academy, having joined on the same day.

_"Hey there beautiful! If you're nervous, you can hold onto me, you know!" _

SMACK. _"Ero-baka! Touch me again die!"_

Jiraiya smiled. There she was again. On his team.

_"Nice to meet you! I'm Jiraiya! You can send me a love letter later!" _

SMACK. _"Ero-baka! What did I say about touching me!?"_  
The chuunin exams…she'd saved his life. He lay on the ground as she bandaged him, and could've sworn he saw tears in those beautiful eyes.

"Tsunade…so you do have a soft spot for me, huh?"

SMACK. _"Ero-b-b-baka! N-next time…d-d-don't take the b-bait if it's so obvious!"_

When they'd set off. On this…their first jounin mission…

_"Tsunade! Don't worry babe, I'll watch your back!"_

SMACK. _"Ero-baka! Just watch, I'll be the one to save your sorry ass again!"_

His smile faded. "Liar…" he whispered.

SMACK. "Jiraiya! Get the fuck up NOW or I'll let Manda here eat you!"

Orochimaru just couldn't let him die in peace, could he?

"Kuchiyose no jutsu: Frog!!"

Jiraiya stood up uncertainly. A feeling of vertigo came over him. There was the oni, he could see its head, finally. What the hell had he summoned? There was Orochimaru, balanced on Manda's hood as gracefully as though he'd been born there, making some very disgraceful gestures at Jiraiya. Something along the lines of 'Do something NOW or I'll let Manda here eat you,' the white haired man guessed.

"Uh," he said, looking down, "Attack?"

"The hell do you mean, attack!?" the frog boss exploded, "Think you're in charge of a fucking army? God, can't believe I was summoned by the village idiot!"

"Um," Jiraiya frowned, "Then what do I say to get you to attack the oni?"

The leviathan frog sighed, and it sounded like a typhoon. "Remind me to give you a few cool pointers next time. I mean, Hellafuck, there's a lady watching and here I am with the king of bakas for a master!"

A lady watching…?

Jiraiya's knees crumpled. "Are you sure?? She's alive!?"  
"Dead people don't watch other people, sonny," the frog replied, "Now handle this fella!"

Jiraiya squinted into the fog at the troll's hands. Yes! Yes! There she

was…bleeding, struggling, watching! Alive!

All the bravado that had left him came flooding back.

"YAHOOOOOOOO! Behold! Jiraiya-sama, jounin of Konohagakure is here! The sexiness that is me shall save the sexiness that is you Tsunade! YAHOOOOOOOO!"  
She yelled something at him, but he didn't stop to listen. He yelled to the frog boss instead, "Kick that bastard's ass, Gama-san!"

"You got it, sonny!"  
Orochimaru watched, mouth slightly agape, as the frog and the young man beat the living daylights out of the monstrous oni that had been plaguing Flame Country for almost a year.

Manda hissed. "Is he always so…loud?"  
Orochimaru nodded. "You get used to it after a while."

"I won't! I'm never responding to your summons again, brat!"

"We'll see," the man said absent-mindedly, "I like you."

After a while… "Who's the frog?"

"Dunno. This is our first time summoning animals this big…only Tsunade could till now…"  
"He can seriously fight. I'd hate to have those two as enemies."

"Oh no…" Orochimaru muttered. Manda tilted his head, nearly sending his rider off balance. "What? The oni's dead, he won."

"Tsunade…"

"Kuchiyose no jutsu: SLUG!!"

Jiraiya paled. "Ah…Tsu-hime, let's talk about this…"

" 'The sexiness that is me shall save the sexiness that is you'?! FUCK YOU!"  
"Anytime!"

"ERO-BAKA, YOU'RE A DEAD MAN!!"

"That," Manda said, "Is a kunoichi to watch out for."

**x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x**


End file.
